vineyardSanford & Benedict
The planting that proved the Santa Ynez river gap: put in during 1971 by Richard Sanford and Michael Benedict on a north-facing slope nobody else wanted, and now inside the Sta. Rita Hills AVA.
When the door opens
Nobody has published this one's days where this project could read them. That is a gap here, not a locked door — write ahead, and see the finder for the cellars that do publish.
The story Tradition
Tradition holds — Sanford went looking with weather records rather than with a realtor, hunting a valley that ran east-west so the ocean air could reach the vines. The old block still gets picked separately and named on labels made by people who never owned it.
Facts
| country | United States |
|---|---|
| established | 1971 |
| region | Sta. Rita Hills, Santa Barbara County, California |
| where | 34.6200, -120.3000 (street) · OpenStreetMap · open in maps Tradition |
| confidence | medium · needs verification · updated 2026-09-16 |
Near here
Straight-line kilometres; the road is always longer. The finder sorts every cellar on the map from wherever you are.
- 9.2 km — Sta. Rita Hills region
- 33.5 km — Au Bon Climat cellar
- 33.6 km — Bien Nacido vineyard 👪 Family-held
- 34.7 km — Santa Maria Valley region
- 226.6 km — Santa Lucia Highlands region
- 238.8 km — Calera cellar
Its kin
Sources
- Sta. Rita Hills AVA · link
- North American Pinot Noir — John Winthrop Haeger, 2004
Where it came from: Cited a source we name · Harvested pulled from an open dataset · Tradition what the tradition says, hedged · Inference this project's reasoning · Field somebody stood there. This record as JSON.